TAS/VET News

News from the TAS/VET Faculty Term 2 2018

It has been such a busy term for the TAS/VET faculty. Year 12 are in the midst of their Major works and their Personal Interest Projects. All Year 12 students in all of our courses will be starting to prepare for their upcoming Trial Exams and we wish them the very best of luck. The students have been working diligently to have their projects at the 90% completion stage by the end of the term. There are a large variety of projects and I must congratulate those students who have been working solidly from the beginning of the process. I am confident the students that have been working continuously and abiding to course requirements and time frames will be rewarded with excellent HSC results at the end of the year.

Year 12 Hospitality have been working very hard all term to complete their Cluster Tasks to satisfy the requirements of their Certificate II course. We are very proud of the way they have tackled these enormous and time consuming tasks.  The Year 11 Hospitality classes will be working in the café during Term 2. They are busy at the moment working through Cluster B and they are learning to make a variety of espresso coffees, non-alcoholic beverages and sandwiches, including Tuscan Burgers, Tandoori Burgers and Steak Sandwiches.

The two Year 11 Hospitality classes are getting ready for their first Work Placement in Weeks 5 and 6 next term and we are confident that they will be very successful in their placements.

Year 11 ITT have designed and made their second task project which was a small table and drawer and they have also completed an industry study.

My Year 11 Society and Culture class have just completed their second assessment task and I must congratulate the students on their outstanding achievement in this task. Three students in particular, Oscar Tebbutt, Senjay Turner and Zac Hegyessy wrote the most amazing extended responses. Their responses were conceptually rich with synthesised and sustained judgements and substantiated with consistent relevant strong examples throughout their writing.

Miss Crystal Reynen has been working very hard with her classes. The Year 12 Engineering Studies are currently looking at the topic of Aeronautical Engineering. They are studying how planes actually fly and the preforming calculations that actually keep the planes in the sky!  An integral component of the course is looking at the scope of the profession and what jobs are available within the Aeronautical Engineering profession.

Year 12 IPT have just submitted their major works for the year. They were required to make a multimedia system (website) on a topic of their choice. The majority the class have completed fantastic websites that look very professional.

Year 12 SDD have also just submitted their major works for the year. All students had to create a game, app or animation of their choice completely from scratch. This means that they had to code their whole projects from beginning to end. This is not an easy task and all students have had a go and the end results are looking very impressive.

Year 11 Design & Technology have just completed the task “Something New from Something Old”. There were a range of really interesting articles including jewellery made form coloured pencils, picture frames and pencil cases from plastic bottles!

Year 11 Food Technology have been working on the unit, Food Quality. Their assessment task was based on their own recipe, the techniques used and the functional properties of the ingredients to produce the best quality product. They were also required to deliver an oral presentation and I must congratulate the students on their outstanding effort with this task.

Mrs Hogan’s and my Year 10 Food Technology class have just completed their unit of work on Food Trends and have produced a range of amazing and equally delicious ice creams. The students have completed their design process from the beginning with investigating different ingredients, and combinations and then making their products, taking into consideration all aspects of a food product in production such as taste, texture and aesthetic qualities as well as extensive testing. The ice creams look so professional and we have had a lot of fun developing these. The written component is an electronic folio including a shop front, seating, a menu and an advertising flyer.

Stage 5 Food Technology classes have been thoroughly enjoying their lessons and they have been learning about Food in Australia, in this unit of work the students learn about multicultural and fusion foods. Their skill levels are developing very well and I can see some future chefs in the making!

Stage 5 Hospitality have also been really enjoying their lessons and are producing some amazing food creations. At present they are working on the sandwich unit and have been making a variety of sandwiches. They are developing their skills very well and they are working extremely well as teams in the kitchen.

The Year 9 IST class and Mrs Hogan have completed work on their databases and they have started working with the Lego Robotics. In this unit they will be designing and building working Robots using the new Lego EV3 kits. 

The 10 IST classes and Miss Reynen are learning about artificial intelligence, simulation and modelling.

Mr Peek and his Stage 5 ITT Timber class have completed their paper towel holders and are starting on their step stools.  They are also totally engaged in their work and their products look fantastic!

The Stage 4 Technology Mandatory classes have been enjoying and embracing their lessons.  The Technology Mandatory Food classes have been designing pies this term. This has involved the design process from the beginning to the end product through to the evaluation stage. The units of work and the final products have been outstanding and I must thank Mrs Pratt for her innovative and creative ideas when designing the programs. Mr Peek’s classes have been very busy making some great timber products including tool boxes and serving trays.

The Technology Mandatory Multimedia classes have just finished their Stop Motion Animation film clips and have done a brilliant job with these. The Year 7/8 YAP class and Miss Reynen have just finished coding their personalised alarm systems using Arduino and thinker shields. Overall, the students enjoyed learning some coding skills, and they enjoyed working collaboratively and creatively to design their own animation.

Our Year 8 STEM classes are having so much fun while learning and the classes are just buzzing!  So far they have been making catapults, learning about stream systems and making masks. Mrs Pratt’s STEM class have been making catapults and learning about distance and force and having a lot of fun!! Some of the classes also made marshmallow towers which looked like a lot of fun! This term Mrs Lill’s STEM classes worked on an introductory computer programming project using "Alice” which is a free programming environment from Carnegie Mellon Universit